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The New Commodore 64

Posted by samzenpus on from the blast-from-the-past dept.

An anonymous reader writes "After nearly 30 years, the Commodore brand has taken on new management and is re-releasing its flagship computer, this time with all the amenities of a modern-day computer packed inside. From the article: 'The new Commodore 64, which will begin shipping at the end of the month, has been souped-up for the modern age. It comes with 1.8 gigahertz dual processors, an optional Blu-ray player and built-in ethernet and HDMI ports. The new Commodore is priced between $250 to $900.'"

5 of 339 comments (clear)

  1. So the question is... by dskzero · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... Why would I buy one?

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    Oblivion Awaits
    1. Re:So the question is... by LWATCDR · · Score: 5, Insightful

      1. It is too expensive for Nostalgia.
      2. It is too thick to be comfortable to type on.

      I really think they are blowing this. I would love to see a modern C-64 but this isn't it. If I was building one I would start with one of the new AMD fusion chips. Put that into a a thin all in one keyboard that is no thicker than a Notebook. Include an HDMI port so you can hook it to a TV. Install a small Flash drive and no hard drives or CD/DVD. Include few USB 3 ports and maybe a Firewire port for people to add mass storage, and throw on a network port and possibly include wifi.
      Put A good Linux on it and a price of $100 to $200.

      If you want a DVD and or windows that will be extra.
      Schools would love it because it is cheap and should have no moving parts. Kids could use it with a TV in their room and it would actually work out. Of course many people could live with just a monitor anyway since cable boxes have HDMI out anyway. Don't make a copy of the C-64 make an new C-64. A cheap computer that will do what most people want it to do.

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      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  2. Alternate headline by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Yet Another Company Sells Retro Computer Case"

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    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Alternate headline by jandrese · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The problem is that they're missing the entire point of the Commie-64. Every one should come with a full copy of LiveCode or something that lets kids mess around with building their own apps right out of the box, without the training overhead that comes from so many modern IDEs. ROM Basic is too primitive to be of much interest anymore (even with the sprite generator and SID chip), but there are lots of products that are similar and could engage a whole new generation. It needs to be simple enough that clever kids can figure it out by reading the (always available) source in existing programs, and powerful enough to be able to do something interesting.

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      I read the internet for the articles.
  3. Re:No numpad? FAIL by Tumbleweed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think that unless it comes with a seperate numpad, this is going to fall flat on its face. The tactile response of the keyboard may be nice (assuming they use individual switches for each key), but the lack of keys will make it close to useless.

    What part of 'Comodore 64' did you not get?